The Kinder Slytherin
by mid-sweettalk
Summary: Quinn Fabray was... interesting. Fabranger. Rated T for slight cursing.


**So... yeah. I was reading these awesome Fabranger ficlets on Tumblr and then this idea got into my head and this is the result. Yeah. Hope y'all enjoy!**

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><p>Hermione could have sworn from her first year that the Common Room was supposed to be a sort of haven for the students. But as she walked down the stairs from the girls' dormitories with her book (one that she <em>actually<em> just wanted to read for pleasure), the details of that room of peace got vaguer and vaguer.

Ron and Seamus were arguing about one thing or the other; Harry and Dean were playing Wizard's Chess (with plenty of smack talk both from them and from the small crowd surrounding them); a group of girls was over in the corner, giggling loudly in their gossip….

It definitely was _not_ a reading-ready environment.

With a roll of her eyes, Hermione turned to exit the Common Room, waving goodbye to the Fat Lady as she stalked down the corridor. Gazing out the windows she passed, Hermione decided that she'd go out by the lake to read and enjoy the sunset that'd be there soon.

There were two trees prime for the picking when she got there, and with a sigh, Hermione noticed that each one was occupied by someone already. As she got closer, her disappointment sunk in deeper as she recognized the two people: Rachel Berry from Ravenclaw, and Quinn Fabray from Slytherin. Pausing a safe distance away, Hermione weighed her options.

Rachel Berry absolutely hated her. She was extremely competitive, even more so than Hermione herself, and so could never get over the fact that Hermione's marks were higher than her own (or the fact that Hermione had made Prefect, and she hadn't). She always had some crude remark to give against Hermione, but always failed in getting a rise out of the Gryffindor, which made the Ravenclaw despise her even more.

Quinn Fabray was… interesting. Though she was a Slytherin, always hanging out with Malfoy and Lopez and therefore clearly showing her disdain towards Hermione, she was never outright mean to her. Rude, yes, but she had never called her a Mudblood in the six years they'd been in school together. Quinn was a year above her, and Hermione respected her for the fact that she had earned the roll of Head Girl. All-in-all, though, Hermione doubted the haughty witch would let her sit anywhere near her. She decided to try and sit by Berry.

As Hermione approached, the Ravenclaw looked up from her book, narrowing her eyes at Hermione from under her bangs. Before Hermione could even speak, Berry said, "What do _you_ want, Granger? You _can't _want to read. Learn any more and your head will get twice as big as it is already."

Hermione stopped in her tracks and blinked slowly at the girl. Pursing her lips and thinking she could never deal with an hour of _that_, she turned on her heel and walked rapidly away, slowing down once she neared the Slytherin-occupied tree.

With the direction she approached her, Hermione could see the title of the book Quinn was reading, as well as the intense look of concentration on her face. Hermione didn't recognize the title, but what she _did_ see was that the picture on the cover wasn't moving. Nor was the picture of the author on the back. Could it be possible that Quinn Fabray was reading a _Muggle _book?

Unlike Berry, Quinn didn't hear Hermione approach, too engrossed in her book to notice her footsteps. Hermione stood there for a moment before she cleared her throat, and the Slytherin's head shot up, her hands bringing the book down to hide the covers behind her raised knees. Her eyes narrowed a bit, though not as dramatically as Berry's had, as she said, "What, Granger?"

Hermione took a breath and looked the blonde in the eyes. "I just need a place to sit and read." After a beat passed, she added, "Berry tends to annoy me."

Hermione could have sworn that she saw a smile appear on the Slytherin's face before she nodded her head. But no, that was ridiculous; Quinn only _tolerated_ her, she didn't actually _like_ her. "Whatever, Granger, just don't bother me." With that, she looked back down to her book, still hiding the unmoving covers from sight.

Hermione let a smile cross her face at her small victory, and took a seat against the trunk of the tree, facing the lake and the setting sun. She opened her book, _A Witches Tale of Life and Love_, and settled in.

As the sun went down and it became harder to read, Hermione closed her book and curled up to watch the sunset. She found it harder and harder to keep her eyes completely open as she watched the reflection of the sun on the Black Lake, and figured that a small nap wouldn't hurt….

Quinn looked up once she realized that it was almost pitch-black outside, and that she could hardly see any of the words on the pages of her book. She heard laughter from nearby, and quickly closed the book, hiding it in her satchel. No one could see that she was reading a Muggle-written book; Granger had been a close enough call.

As she looked around for the source of the voices, she noticed both that Berry had left her tree, and that Granger was asleep in the same spot she was in earlier. When she finally spotted the group of students, she rolled her eyes. Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, Santana Lopez, Pansy Parkinson, and Brittany Pierce were all walking towards her, Brittany's yellow Hufflepuff crest sticking out against all the green and silver. They had obviously each had one too many fire whiskeys, with their arms around each other, feet tripping over nonexistent objects, and the way Santana was actually showing more affection towards Brittany than their usual touching pinkies.

When they caught sight of Quinn, the entire group started bounding over with "Hey Quinn!" and "'Sup, Fabray!" Then they caught sight of the sleeping Hermione Granger on the other side of the tree, and wicked grins grew rapidly across all of their faces.

Well, everyone's except for Brittany. She was never mean to anybody.

"What do you say we give the little Muddie a makeover?" Pansy suggested to the group.

"Let's do it, whoo!" Santana said loudly, throwing a fist in the air and losing her balance. Brittany quickly put an arm around her waist to keep her steady.

"Oh, can we make her hair all shiny, San?" Brittany said innocently. "Like it was in fourth year, remember? She was so pretty."

"You can do whatever you want with her filthy hair," Malfoy said, his nose scrunched up in disgust, "I'm going to make sure no one ever forgets just what a dirty little Mudblood she is."

Draco took his wand out of his robe pocket and cast a quick sleeping spell on the Gryffindor, glancing over at Quinn. "You in, Fabray, or what?"

Quinn glanced over at the girl and thought it over. Besides being slightly annoying with her seemingly vast knowledge of pretty much all things, Granger hadn't really done anything to bother Quinn. She seemed too goody-goody to actually harm anyone, so she couldn't imagine why these others would want to harm her just because she was muggle-born.

"Look, just leave her alone, guys," Quinn said finally, standing up to scoffs and groans.

"What the fuck, Q?" Santana drawled, the arm around Brittany's shoulders doing nothing to keep her balance.

"I just don't see the point, okay? She hasn't hurt anyone, why should we hurt her? Just because we're in Slytherin, we're supposed to-"

"Hey!" Santana exclaimed suddenly, "I don't try to be mean! I'm not a bad person! I just have feelings, okay?" Quinn rolled her eyes as drunken tears rolled down Santana's cheeks and Brittany brought her closer.

"Fabray, if you're not going to join in on the fun, then just leave us to it," Zabini voiced, pulling out his wand and pointing it at the still-sleeping Gryffindor.

As he opened his mouth to utter a spell, Quinn pulled her wand out of her pocket and said, "Protego," rebounding Zabini's curse. He threw his head back and groaned before glaring at the blonde.

"What the hell is up with you tonight, Fabray?" Parkinson whined through her pug-nose.

"Nothing is 'up' with me, Pansy," Quinn answered as she bent down to pick up her bag. Malfoy started talking, but Quinn tuned out his bratty voice. She made her decision and walked over to Granger, taking her closed book and placing it in her own bag before bending back down to scoop the girl into her arms. Standing back up, she adjusted Granger's body so that her head was leaning against Quinn's own shoulder, and that Quinn's arm was under the hook of Granger's knees.

Malfoy's "What are you _doing_, Fabray?" finally reached Quinn's ears, and she looked nonchalantly at the remainder of the group (she could see Brittany and Santana walking off together in the distance).

"I'm taking Granger somewhere that she can actually get some good rest." She started walking off towards the castle, but turned to call over her shoulder, "And where she can be safe away from _you_ lunatics."

Walking away from the pure-blooded idiots, Quinn felt proud of herself. She'd always wanted to put those bigots in their places.

Quinn looked down as Granger stirred in her arms. She figured Malfoy's sleeping spell must not have been a very strong one, as the girl buried her face deeper into Quinn's neck and moved her hand to clench the front of Quinn's shirt. Quinn's step faltered a bit as she felt Granger's breath softly hit her neck and her hand relax against Quinn's stomach. She forced her eyes back open and her bottom lip from between her teeth and kept walking.

By the time she reached the Fat Lady, Granger's light frame had started to feel slightly heavy in Quinn's arms. She could feel her slipping, but didn't want to jostle her for fear of waking her, or reach for her wand and risk dropping her completely. Glancing from Granger to the portrait, Quinn hissed a "Psst!" to the Fat Lady, not waking either of them. She contemplated kicking the portrait, but figured that wasn't usually something a Head Girl would do.

Sighing as she realized what had to happen next, Quinn walked over to the wall and gently set the Gryffindor on the ground. She knelt beside the girl, who began to stir at the movement, and called her name.

Hermione opened her eyes slowly and was extremely confused. Why was Quinn Fabray with her? Why was she inside the castle when she had just been outside reading?

It was then that Hermione glanced out the window and saw that it was pitch black outside. All the portraits were sleeping, as well. So how…?

"Did you _bring_ me up here?" Hermione asked Quinn incredulously, now completely awake.

"Carried you yeah. Don't get used to it, Granger; the blithering idiots that are the Malfoyettes were wanting to mess with you, so I tried to bring you up here. The stupid painting won't wake up," Quinn drawled with a roll of her eyes towards the mentioned portrait.

Hermione just looked at the blonde, noticing for the first time the color of her eyes, the pallor of her skin, her overall beauty. "Thank you, Quinn," Hermione half-whispered, her eyes widening slightly as they locked with the Slytherin's.

"Yeah…" Quinn half-whispered back. She blinked and said, in a more rigid tone, "Like I said, don't get used to it." She watched as Hermione's tongue darted out to wet her lips. "See you around… Hermione."

She nudged the Gryffindor's foot with the back of her hand before standing. With a half-salute, the blonde turned and walked away in the direction of the Slytherin dungeons. She started worrying her bottom lip with her teeth again, remembering the feeling of having the smaller girl in her arms, her warm breath against her neck, her hand on her stomach.

And she'd never noticed just how deep Granger's eyes were.

She fought with herself on whether to look back or not. Part of her, for some reason, wanted one last glance of the girl. _Just to make sure she got inside alright,_ Quinn told herself. The other part said she would seem like a stalker. _Oh well_.

Quinn turned around, and even from the huge distance, her eyes locked with Hermione's.

She had the hardest time turning away.

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><p><strong>Read and review please! Tell me if you liked it :)<strong>


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